Importance of Balance: Blending and Conflicting
by narutosavior
Summary: No BS about Naruto being stupid or weak. Important but not overly strong Naruto. Strongest genin but not above mid-chunin at the start. I don't own Naruto. Read and Review.


Hidden Ability

Naruto was a pretty simple guy. Or so most would think. He doesn't seem to have a very bright light bulb to shine over his head in the 'rare' moments he has a plan or an idea. This is just a façade of a 12-year-old academy student who was about to surprise even the Hokage.

The truth was that he was really studious and intelligent. You see, for some reason, he only needed 4 hours of sleep. So, every morning, he would get up at three and study. The Hokage had been giving him scrolls ever since his 5th birthday because he thought that Naruto wouldn't read them until he was old enough to understand the importance of studying. Oh but he knew that knowledge was very helpful. How do you think he escaped the villagers every time they decided to chase him? He had memorized the town layout so well that even the Hokage would have to consult a map to win a game of 20 questions. Well, I'm rambling on about how smart our hero is and neglecting to tell the story. We'll start here, in the academy, 3 weeks before graduation.

"Hey, Sakura chan, will you please go out with me?" Naruto pleaded. Despite his intelligence, he was still a fool for Sakura. She was probably the worst konoichi in the class as far as practicality. If she were to train instead of following her precious Uchiha like a lost puppy, she would be the best. The fact that Sasuke and Naruto are best friends seems to elude her when Naruto asks her out because she alwa- BAM! Never mind that sound, it's just Naruto's skull hitting the floor because of Sakura's biggest sin, her wrath. This is what would happen every time Naruto asked her out. Surprisingly, Sasuke spoke up.

"Idiot, why did you do that? He likes you, he supports you, and all you can do is spite him every time he tries to get your attention." Sasuke said. He didn't say it with emotion or anything, he was actually curious as to why the pink haired bookworm did what she did.

"Because, I don't like him back and he's just being annoying. Instead of fawning over me, he should be trying to get his IQ above that of a shovel's." Sakura answered coldly, in hopes of finally having a good conversation with her precious Sasuke.

"You mean like you do to him?" Naruto snapped as he got up. No matter how much he liked Sakura, she needs to hear this and he needs to drop his mask soon. On testing day, he would drop his mask, and the course of his life would change forever.

"Shut up Naruto, I'm Way smarter than you of all people!" Sakura screeched.

"I meant do you train ever? When have you ever done any physical training beyond the bare minimum requirements?" Naruto retorted.

Sakura recoiled before screaming "Shut up!" and proceeding to trying to hit him. Naruto did something that would make everyone's jaws drop, he dodged the strike and used her momentum to throw her into the wall. She crashed with her back flat on the wall before sliding down on her ass. Everyone was dumbstruck, Naruto was always good at Taijutsu, but he never retaliated to Sakura's attacks. From her point of view, she was falling apart. She realized what she had become, a burden that had no skills as a ninja. How could she even pursue Sasuke if she was weaker than the class clown? Now she also made a decision. She would work hard until she could stand on even ground with Sasuke as a ninja, and not be the damsel in distress.

After an awkward silence, Naruto spoke "I'm sorry Sakura, but this is reality, and in a few weeks, we become ninjas that put their lives on the line and weaknesses will not be looked over by enemies." Another awkward silence ensued; did Naruto just say something intelligent? Just as the class got situated in their seats again, Iruka, the teacher, walked in.

"Hey sensei, where's Mizuki?" Kiba asked, drawing everyone's attention on Iruka.

"He betrayed the village and was taken care of last night." Iruka answered solemnly. Mizuki had been his best friend since they were put on a squad together. He had tried to take the Forbidden Scroll, but was apprehended by the Hokage when he got to the office.

"Moving on, I have finished instructing you for the year, but we will be reviewing for the next 3 weeks, so if you have any questions about anything, do not hesitate to ask." Iruka said, staring pointedly at Naruto. Said student just shrugged and laid his head down on the desk. As students asked their questions, Naruto was deciding whether or not to drop his mask yet. As he was debating, Sasuke decided to make the 'dobe' drop his mask that day.

"Hey dobe, let's spare _all_ out for practice in _all_ areas." Sasuke said. It was clear to Naruto that Sasuke had figured it out. '_Ah, what the hell?'_ he thought as he got out of his seat and headed towards the training field with Sasuke. Everyone filed out of the classroom to watch the pummeling- I mean friendly spar. Boy were they in for a surprise and a loss of funds to one shy –cough- stalker –cough- Hyuga willing to bet on Naruto winning.

"Show me your true strength, Naruto." Sasuke challenged. Iruka stood in the middle of the field and began to lay down the ground rules.

"Alright four rules, rule #1: Don't kill each other just make your opponent yield or incapacitated rule #2: Demonstrate all of the basic three jutsus and rule #3: You can use any jutsus you have in your arsenal in place of up to two of the academy three rule #4: there is no maximum amount of jutsus you can use. Begin!" and they did. Sasuke was the first one to charge and just as he reached Naruto, he was gone. Well it turns out that Naruto used a substitution on Sasuke to get behind him. Just as Sasuke turned around, Naruto shot a jab into his turning face and sent him to the ground. Without a hand seal or word, Naruto made ten clones and as Sasuke got up. They all got into a foreign Taijutsu stance. They had their weight on their back legs with their arms fanned out and their front legs resting on the balls of their feet (Muay Thai stance). They waited patiently for their confused opponent to attack.

"What kind of stance is that and how was Naruto able to do jutsu without seals?" Kiba asked from the sidelines. He's been thinking more than usual today.

"That's Naruto's fighting stance for a Taijutsu style that only the Hokage was able to find. He gave the scroll to Naruto on his 7th birthday, but I didn't know he had even glance at any of his scrolls. To do jutsu without seals, you have to know the exact purpose for all the seals in the jutsu that regulate the flow of chakra used for the jutsu. The only way to know that is if you study Fuinjutsu." Iruka explained still in shock of the small taste of Naruto's true abilities.

"So you're saying he also knows Fuinjutsu?" Sakura asked, feeling more and more useless as Naruto showed more smarts and skills that she knew she couldn't hope to match as of right then. More determination leaked into her to get stronger.

Sasuke went in again, this time one of Naruto's clones went to meet Sasuke and came with a kick. "You can't fool me Nar-," Sasuke was cut off by a solid kick from a solid clone. Everyone thought Naruto had just swapped with the clone. That thought was shot down as soon as the clone poofed out of existence from Sasuke's kick in a counter attack.

"So your clones are solid? Fine I'll just take you all out anyway!" Sasuke shouted as he charged another clone. Imagine his surprise when his fist went right through the clone. While he was off balance, the real Naruto came at him with a knee to the face that sent him flying into a tree. Thinking quickly, Sasuke bounded off the tree back at Naruto making hand seals. When he finished, he landed and put his fingers to his mouth as he shouted "Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" The fireballs shooting from his mouth each went towards one of the ten Narutos, only for Sasuke to discover all of them were clones. As soon as they all dispersed, Sasuke made three clones in hopes of making the real Naruto guess wrong and give away his position. 'Kiba' then jumped out of the crowd and attacked the three clones, exposing the real Sasuke before dispersing in a cloud of smoke. As Naruto emerged from the bushes, Sasuke finished his hand seals for a new jutsu "Grand Fireball Jutsu" A large fireball blocked everyone's view of Naruto as it approached him. When it cleared, Naruto emerged from behind Sasuke almost out of nowhere and held a kunai to his neck.

"Looks like I win. Still want to see the extent of my abilities? Get strong enough to where I have to use them." Naruto jibed as he pulled away his kunai. Sasuke was shaking with rage. What made Naruto so strong? He had to know. Maybe he would spare that solid clone jutsu if he trained with him.

The rest of the class was in shock. Naruto beat Sasuke of all people. Anyone else would have been believable if only by a small margin, but this was impossible. The girls in the class stared at Hinata as she took the money in the betting pool. They placed the odds at 100 to 1 in Sasuke's favor, so Hinata basically earned a small fortune. As she promised everyone, She offered half of it to Naruto, who declined saying "I'll be fine without it. Use it to get something nice."

In the alley behind the school, Kiba finally got free of his bindings and went home, seething about the damn Sexy Jutsu.

The next day, all the girls were at the training grounds, looking for any traps or anything Naruto could have set up to stage the fight. When Naruto arrived, all the girls except Ino, Sakura, and money bags stalker- I mean Hinata were glaring at him. One of the brave ones asked the burning question in their minds "Naruto baka, we know you cheated, so how did you do it?"

For the umpteenth surprise within 24 hours, a seething Sasuke answered, "You idiots, he didn't cheat, and even if he had, we are supposed to be ninjas. We are supposed to win by any means necessary." The girls did an even more surprising thing then all the recent events combined, they thought about that fact. All of them came to the realization that being a ninja is serious business and dirty work. By the end of the week, Most of the students with civilian parents dropped out of the academy.

Two weeks have passed since the mass drop out incident, and the students are preparing to take their genin exam. Just as Iruka walked in, they all put away their textbooks (cliff notes) and sat at attention.

"All right, first is the written exam. You'll get three essay questions and each paper is different to test you each in your weakest subjects. You have two hours to complete it and each essay has to be at least a page." As soon as they all received their tests, all you could hear was either snoring or pencils scratching. Fifteen minutes passed before Naruto raised his hand.

"Is there a problem Naruto?" Iruka asked him. He didn't know exactly what to expect from the orange clad enigma after that spectacle three weeks ago.

"What do we do when we're done?" Naruto asked.

Iruka sighed and shook his head. "Naruto, at least try the questions." Iruka admonished.

"But I really am done, come look if you don't believe me." Iruka sighed again as he made his way to Naruto's desk. When he got there, he discovered Naruto was indeed done. Being skeptical Iruka inspected Naruto before coming to the conclusion that if Naruto did cheat, that he did it well enough to get credit for it anyway.

"Just let me have it and you can leave for a while. Be sure to back in an hour and a half." Iruka warned.

"I will," and with that, Naruto shunshined away. Shaking it off, Iruka went back to his desk to grade Naruto's paper. As he read it, he noticed it was good, textbook good. Since when had Naruto been such a good formal writer? In all his years in the academy, Iruka had never read a paper this thorough, let alone Naruto's papers from his classes. Not that that mattered seeing as how only the graduation test counted when deciding Rookie of the Year, and this was a good start.

While Iruka was gawking at his paper, Naruto was venturing to the Hokage Tower. When he arrived, he rushed into his office without warning. As such, he caught the old Sarutobi looking at the exams through his crystal ball.

"I knew it!" Naruto shouted with pride. The Hokage just gaped at him.

Regaining his composure, the Hokage spoke "Naruto, just what have you been hiding? Did your tenant help you with all this?" Naruto had known about Kyuubi since his 5th birthday when one of the more inebriated rioters told him. When Naruto said he wouldn't rely on the fox's power to get strong, Sarutobi started to give him scrolls on Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu for his birthdays. He didn't know Naruto had actually trained with him until three weeks ago just like everyone else.

"I told you that I haven't even heard from it yet. I wouldn't enlist its help anyway." Naruto fired back. He hated that the fox could get credit whenever he achieved something. Naruto Uzumaki was no cheater! Well, to a ninja extent.

The aged Hokage visibly relaxed and said "I'm sorry Naruto. Now what did you want?"

"I want to know of a shop that I could get some new attire. This is a little obvious for a ninja." Naruto said as he pulled out his safety orange jacket.

The Hokage nodded and looked down at his crystal ball. After a few seconds the image of the genin hopefuls was gone and was replaced by the image of a mid-sized shop with a sign that read "Higarashi Weapons". "This place is owned by a family that is completely loyal to the Fourth's dying wish," the Hokage explained. "Can you get there?"

"Yeah, I've passed that place a couple of times. Thanks Jiji!" Naruto said as he shunshined to the shop. When he got there a second later, he walked inside.

"Welcome to Higarashi Weapons! My name is Tenten, how may I help you?" A cheery teenage girl said from behind the counter. She had brown hair tied up in two buns akin to a panda. She wore a pink Chinese dress with dark blue combat pants. She couldn't be more than a year older than Naruto.

"Hi I'm looking for a new set of clothes fit for a ninja." Naruto explained, as he looked at all the cool sharp objects around him. He noticed they had a lot of weapons, and some of them were not that practical for ninjas.

"Well I figured out that much already, but were you looking for anything else?" she jibed.

Taken aback by her joke/insult, he recoiled. After recovering, he spoke "I guess I could also get a weapon for me to learn to use. Does your shop offer lessons with the weapons you sell?" Naruto inquired while idly browsing clothes.

"We do, but let's get you out of the monstrosity of clothes you have on first." With that, they began to pick out clothes. They eventually got him ten sets of black cargo pants, black spiked gloves, and ten black t-shirts. No baggy clothes so they don't snag, but enough storage to conceal a lot of weapons. After that, they went back to the weapons section of the store to pick one.

"Let's see, you're a little short, but you'll probably grow, and what Taijutsu style do you use?" Tenten asked as she thought out loud.

"I use Muay Thai, Coiepera, and Aikido so I guess I'll need at least a knife for Coiepera, but I'm not sure for the others." Naruto admitted hoping against hope that she would at least a little about the styles he used. The other two scrolls for Aikido and Muay Thai were incomplete and thus he didn't know what he needed for those.

"Well, you're in luck Mr…" Tenten paused not knowing his name

"Naruto Uzumaki" he filled in.

"Thank you. Your in luck Naruto, I happen to know those weapon styles, and we do carry them. You'll need two double-edged straight katanas and a ninjato. Weapon lessons are 20 ryo an hour for private lessons from me or 50 ryo for my dad." Tenten offered although she already knew the answer. Who would want cheap lessons from a little girl?

"Well if it doesn't inconvenience you, I'll take your lessons." Naruto stated thinking of his poor frog wallet affectionately dubbed Gama-chan.

Tenten reeled back. Did she hear right? Did she just get her first student? No way, her dad didn't get his first student until he was fifteen! And she was a konoichi, not a guy! She had to confirm this, "Did you say you wanted lessons from me?"

"If that is a problem-," Naruto started frowning.

"No no, not at all!" she interrupted "It's just everyone always picks my dad because of my age," she explained.

Naruto smiled softly before saying "Why should that matter? Battle experience can't be taught anyway, only the skills." Naruto learned that when he had to kill one of his attackers one night last year.

Tenten smiled as he paid for his weapons and clothing and then asked "So when would you like your first lesson?"

"I'll be back when I'm done with my genin exam." He said as he shunshined home to drop off his stuff before going back for the rest of his test. Tenten smiled as he left, she'd have to keep an eye out for him when they take the chunin exams in six months.

Naruto, having dropped off his stuff at his apartment, went back to the academy. He arrived just as they were setting up the obstacle course. He had to wait another fifteen minutes before his class filed out of the building for the practical tests. He noted that Sakura was a little nervous but her chakra reserves were about five times bigger than they were. She had listened. Another apprehensive one was Ino, but again it was noticeable that she had been training.

"Alright, we're going to be doing the practical tests now. First you have to clear this obstacle course first. Then we'll test your Taijutsu in spars against each other and the last portion is Ninjutsu." Iruka explained as he lined up the students for the obstacle course. Naruto got the fastest time; Sasuke came in second by a minute. After that, they commenced in testing Taijutsu. Again Naruto beat Sasuke by ten points. In the Ninjutsu portion, Sasuke was confident that he had more jutsus than Naruto so he could scrape the title of Rookie of the Year. Sasuke demonstrated the jutsu he used in the spar a few weeks ago plus the academy three. Naruto demonstrated the academy three and then things got hectic. He demonstrated Kage Bunshin, Kaze no Yaiba, Water Prison, and Great Breakthrough. He got Rookie of the year by 200 points. He got 1100/1000 altogether. That tied Orochimaru's record. At the end of the day, the civilian parents looked at him with hate and fear. They were scared of the 'demon' having the power to beat the Uchiha.

At around 5 o'clock, Tenten got a shock from Naruto appearing in her shop via shunshin. He had his new attire on and was looking at her expectantly. Snapping out of her shock, she said. "We'll be at training ground 11 for today." Naruto nodded and then proceeded to grab her hand. She blushed and then he shunshined them to the training ground. A still slightly blushing Tenten spoke "Today we'll go over Muay Thai since it requires two weapons. We'll start with the horizontal defenses and offensive techniques."

They didn't say much other than a few explanations and corrections by Tenten. Naruto was pretty quick on the uptake and usually only took two or three tries to get the forms right. By the end of the hour, he had learned all the strictly sword based forms. He still needed to learn to use them and get the muscle memory, but that would come after he practiced all of the forms.

"That was good Naruto. You're a natural." Tenten said to a slightly sweaty Naruto. He thanked her for the session before heading home to get some rest before his training/team meeting the next day. He would be so shocked about his team…

The cage was dark, darker than most places in the world could ever be. The fox sat and thought about how he got there. He was on a mission to destroy a soon to be evil village and prevent a catastrophe. Sure, it was a nice place, a little too nice. The place had started to corrupt itself with Chaos instead of the Twilight that had once made the village great. Pitiful humans couldn't stand much of the complacency that had rooted the balance of light and dark that had been in the now forsaken place.

As the lord of all demons Kyuubi was obligated to make sure that the darkness did not conflict with the light. By no means was he good. That being said, his purpose makes it where he can't be evil, as it was his job to balance the four forces of sentience. Good, evil, light, and dark. Light is portrayed as good and Dark is portrayed as evil. This is probably one of the most common misconceptions that cause Chaos. They balance each other out in order to balance natural resources humans need physically and emotionally. Good and evil are supposed to be balanced so that comparison of state of being and make morality is possible. Humans are so pathetic that they need someone to show them what not to do. Ironically, that is what makes them smart, the ability to be self-aware and ask the all-important question, why. The Kyuubi was trapped by a human who had so much good that it blinded him from the evil fiercely combating his good. This conflict allows corruption to seep in with the two sides focused on each other.

Back to the village now, he needed to stop the corruption before Chaos took root with the conflict. Enough philosophical explanation for now, how was the lord supposed to get out? He could ask help of Kami if he could get even a little of his youki free. He would have to wait, and until the time came when his vessel needed his power, he might be able to get the brat to help him. After all, the literally twice-damned village was the reason for the child's pain. Either he would help him or be the one redeeming prophet that comes every millennium or so; however, none of the prophets before had had this much pain. Despite the overdose of evil in his life, the brat maintained Twilight and Harmony, the two perfect states of being between light, dark, good and evil respectively. It scared the beast. If the kid snapped, he would have to end the world again in order to get rid of the Chaos and Discord and start anew.

A/N

There is a poll for pairings on my page. Hinata is not a choice because I have plans. A tie means a harem of 2-3. Polls will close at the tenth chapter or after the chunin exams, whichever comes first.

IMPORTANT INFO:

Techniques that Naruto knows:

Kaze no yaiba

Water prison

Great breakthrough

Kage bunshin

Bunshin

Basic seals like bomb tags

Moderate seals that allow sealess jutsu

Taijutsu styles

Coiepera: This style is based on using the legs as flails and hammers by using dance moves to gain momentum. The knife fighting is considered dirty and is looked down on by most practitioners. Uses eastern and western concepts.

Muay Thai: Muay Thai is the pinnacle of western concept striking. By using the fists, knees, feet, and elbows in a deadly whirlwind of muscle power, practitioners are feared and respected by those who know of the martial art. They guard by shifting their bodies so that their opponents will hit their strongest built parts to minimize damage and keep attacking.

Aikido: Depending on the branch, this style varies a lot. In this story, Naruto will use the purely self-defense style that consists of nothing but counter attacks and a weapon style that utilizes the speed of a lighter weapon like a ninjato to block fast and get inside the guard to throw. Uses eastern concept.

Eastern Concept: Use as little energy possible to create damage. The most basic example is a karate punch. When the attacker stomps with the punch, he's using the energy from the stomp and the momentum of his weight to deal damage.

Western Concept: The idea of using strong muscles and muscle speed to deal damage. When a boxer punches, he uses the speed of his arm, the rotation of his body, and the muscles in his arm to gain power.


End file.
